Manufacture of textile materials



Jan. 12, 1937. w TAYLOR 2,067,251

MANUFACTURE OF TEXTILE MATERIALS Filed- April 18, 1934 Patented n... 12,1937 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE land, assignor to Celanese C orporationof America, a corporation of Delaware Applicationnpril 18, 1934, SerialNo. 721,089 In Great Britain April 21, 1933 8 Claims.

This invention relates to the manufacture of textile materials, and inparticular to the production of artificial filaments in aforin suitablefor their conversion into staple fibres adapated for the manufacture ofspun yarn.

.U. S. application S. No. 390,355 filed 4th September,-1929, describesthe production of 'a fibrous mass of artificial filaments by subjectingtravelling filaments to the action of afiuid'stream by 1 the aid ofwhich thefilaments are scattered and deposited as a mass throughoutwhich they are irregularly disposed. In this way the filaments in themass do not lie closely side by side, and

when the mass is pulled, combed or teased to bring the filaments intosubstantial alignment preparatory to cutting or breaking them intostaple fibres, there is avoided the very close disposition of filamentand filament encouteredwhen staple fibres are cut from threads ofartificial filaments, which close disposition renders difiicult thesepa-' ration of the filaments necessary for their even distribution inthe spinning operations by which the staple fibres are formed into thespun yarn.

The present invention makes use of similar means to bring aboutanirregular disposition of filaments which are to be cut or otherwiseformed into staple fibres, the object of .the invention, "however, beingto bring the filaments into a more ordered arrangement so as tofacilitate their transformation into fibres.

According to the invention, travelling filaments are subjected to theaction of a stream which blows them in the direction of their travel soas to separate them from each other, and then, in-

tion S. No. 390,355, the separated filaments are received on a windingdevice which collects them in a state of substantial but not completeparallelism with one another.

An important point about the winding operation is that the filaments arecollected with little or no tension so that the action of the windingdevice does not draw the separated filaments close together again, butoperates mainly to collect the filaments in a slack manner and allowthem to retain the separated condition to which they have been broughtby the action of the fluid stream. For this purpose the winding device,

periphery, moves with a winding Speed somewhat'less than the deliveryspeedof the filaments, the :filaments being delivered thereto by u meansof a suitable blowing nozzle, e. g. an ejector stead of allowing thefilaments to collectin. adisorderly mass as described in U. S. applica-4 which is conveniently in the form of a reel-or drum having a windingsurface of substantial in order'to allow the operation to proceed aslong as possible without interruption, should be of large capacity.Threads 'of filaments drawnlo from such supplies should, of course,nothave any twist which would hinder the desired separation of thefilaments, and with advantage the threads may be entirely without twist.

The operation may, moreover, be carried out continuously with theproduction of artificial filaments, as for example continuously with theproduction of filaments of cellulose acetate or other .cellulose estersor ethers by the dry or evaporative method. 'In this case the filamentsare drawn'from. one or any other desired number of jets by a feed rollerand delivered from this roller to the ejector device where they areseparated and delivered to the winding drum. Such operation, by bringingthe filaments continuous y with their production into a conditionsuitable for their immediate conversion into staple fibres, forms asimple and economical step in the production of artificial spun yarns.

By way of example a form of apparatus suitable for carrying out thepresenttinvention will now be described in greater detail with referenceto the accompanying drawing in which:-

' Figure 1 is a part sectional side elevation and,

Figure 2 is a plan view of the apparatus. Continuous artificialfilaments 3 are produced in a dry spinning cell or chamber 4 and aredeflected by means of a guide rod 5 through an opening 6 leading out ofthe chamber. The filaments- 3 are forwarded from the chamber 4 by a feedroller 1 round which they pass, pairs-of tension rods 8, 9 between whichthe filaments pass being provided before and after the feed roller 1.The tension rods 8 are in a vertical position and the tension rods 9 ina horizontal position, and both pairs of rods are adjustable by means ofknurled heads II, I I to vary the amount of friction applied between therods and the filaments.

After passing the second pair of tension rods Q,

the filaments proceed through an ejector device device is of the typedescribed in U. S. application S. No. 390,355 and comprises an innertube l3, air being fed to the annular space outside the tube It by meansof an air pipe M controlled by a valve l5. The ejector ii is flared atits mouth it and the filaments 3 passing through the inner tube i3areopened and spread out into a mass of separate filaments ii. Theseparation of the filaments is assisted by the action of the tensionrods 8, 9 which, as is described in U. S. application S. No. 390,355,not only apply a controlled tension to the filaments, but also causethem to spread.

In addition, the friction between the rods and the filaments causes thefilaments to be electrically charged, which is also of assistance incausing the The separate filaments li are blown on a winding drum I8,the axis of the ejector device ll being higher than that of the drum l8,so that the filaments are received by the drum at a point above itsaxis. The drum it rotates (as indicated in Figure 1) in acounter-clockwise direction so that the filaments H which have formed aloose pile above the axis of the drum are drawn downwardly beneath thedrum and wound thereon. In this manner the tension in the filaments H isdue'to the air blast only and not to any'pull of the drum I 8. The drumI8 is provided with flanges 19 to confine the filaments laterally and ismounted on standards 23.

As is shown in Figure 2, the feed roller l and the drum 18 are drivenfrom 'a shaft 2!, chain sprockets 22, 23 and chain 2d being provided todrive the feed roller 1, while cones 25, 26 and a belt 21 are providedto drive the shaft 28 of the drum l8. A fine adjustment of the speed ofthe drum l8 relative to that of the feed roller 'l' is obtained byvarying the position of the belt 21! on the two cones 25, 26. .This iseffected bymeans of a fork 29 controlling the position of the belt Zlland movable by means of a screw 30 which is rotated by a hand wheel 3!.By these means the speed of the drum I8 is so adjusted as to beslightly' less than that of the feed roller '5, and the filaments ii arewound slackly on the drum.

When a sufiicient quantity of filaments has been collected on the drum'i8 it is cut off by means of a knife and forms a hank-like bundleconsisting of filamentary lengths each equal to the periphery-of thedrum I8. I

The bundle of filaments formed on the drum may conveniently be wetted inthe manner described in U. S. application S. No. 613,561 filed 25th May,1932, to bring it into a compact state for cutting and, furthermore, thewetting liquid employed may contain hygroscopic bodies as described inU. S. application '8. No. 614,853 filed '1. A process for, thelproduction of staple fibres fr oniicontinuous filaments which comprisesblow:

.. ing travelling continuous filaments in the direction of their travelso' as to separate the filaments from one another and winding thefilaments while one another.

they are separated so as to collect them in a state 'of substantial butincomplete parallelism with 2. A process for the production of staplefibres from continuous filaments which comprises blowingtravellingcontinuous filaments in the direction of their travel so as toseparate the filaments from one another and to direct them towards arotating winding surface, and receiving the separated filaments upon aportion of such winding surface which is moving in a direction reverseto the direction of travel of the filaments, thereby collecting thefilaments in astate of substantial but incomplete parallelism with oneanother.

3. A process for the production of staple fibres which comprisesextruding a spinning solution to produce a plurality of continuousartificial filaments,'separating said filaments from-one another whilethey are travelling continuously with their production by blowing themin the directionv of their travel, and winding the filaments while theyare separated so as to collect them in a state staritial but incompleteparallelism with one another.

5. A process for the production of staple fibres of cellulose acetatewhich comprises extruding a solution of cellulose acetate to producecontinuous. artificial filaments, separating said filaments from one.another while they are travelling continuously with their production byblowing them in the direction of their travel, and winding the filamentswhile they are separated so as to collect them in a state of substantialbut incomplete parallelism with one another.

6. Apparatus for the production of staple fibres from continuousfilaments comprising a winding member to receive the continuousfilaments, means for rotating said member and a; blowing nozzle adaptedto direct the filaments and to separate them from one another, saidmember being rotatable in such a direction, and said nozzle being sodisposed with respect thereto that the separated filaments are receivedon a part of the surface of said member which moves in the reversedirection to that in which the filaments are directed by the nozzle,whereby the separated filaments are wound in a state of substalntial butincomplete parallelism with one anot er.

7. Apparatus for the production of staple fibres from continuousfilaments, comprising a winding member, a blowing nozzle adapted todirect filaments coming from a source of supply on to said windingmember and to separate them from one another, means for forwarding thefilaments from such source of supply to said blowing nozzle, means forrotating the winding member in a" direction opposite to the direction oftravel of the blown filaments, said member being adapted to collect theseparated filaments in a state of substantial but incomplete parallelismwith one another, and means for adjusting the speed ratio between saidwinding device and said forward-- in: means.

1 supply and said nozzle,v said tension device being adapted to spreadthe continuous filameatsbefore they reach said nozzle and means'torrotating the winding member in a direction opposite to the direction oitravel of the blown filaments, said member being adapted to collect theseparated filaments in a state of substantial but incomplete 5parallelism with one another.

WILLIAM IVAN TAYLOR.

